Sleepless Night
by Comix28
Summary: She had grown to depend on their brute strength, their monstrous abilites. No one could stand in their way. They were her nakama and they would always be around, right? ....Right? (One-shot. Not a deathfic.)


Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. The characters in One Piece belong to the wonderful Oda-san and obviously, I am not him. (Unless I had, a major sex change and body switch without noticing it. Lol.

Author's Notes: Hiya! This is my first OP fanfic, and I just recently got into One Piece, (I cannot believe I got up to episode 136 so fast thou . >.>;;;) so I implore you, please be gentle!

**Sleepless Night**

Something was wrong. Eerily wrong.

**  
**A violent shiver ripped through her body in response to her nerves as she tried to get comfortable in her bed. After all, it was only her mind playing tricks on her, wasn't it? There was no way that it could be so silent and still, especially on this ship, right?

Sitting up in bed, Nami pushed sweat soaked bangs out of her eyes and took into account how cold and clammy her skin was. Not to mention how much her stomach was twisting into nervous knots.

_I'm just being stupid, what am I getting myself all worked up over? _

But as she concentrated and tried to regulate her breathing that suddenly seemed to be going too fast, her heart pumping blood faster than usual, her uncanny instincts told her that something definitely wasn't right. They were the same instincts that allowed her to sense approaching hazards on the sea and if there was one thing, she had learned while aboard this ship, it was to listen to them.

_Maybe I should go check and see if any of the guys feel as weird as I do..._

As she finally found the strength to stand, she realized one of the major factors that had made her feel subconsciously uneasy. The ship was perfectly still.

She suddenly felt as if she had gone numb and deaf. Could it be possible? There was no sound of waves slapping against the hull, no groaning of the ship as it took the abuse. Granted the ship was anchored down, but that was no excuse for why she couldn't even feel it bob in the water. It was just sitting on top of the sea as far as she could tell. Nevertheless, what completely unnerved her to no end, was that she couldn't hear the guys either.

They would always mumble in their sleep. She knew. She wasn't always aware of it, having learned to tune them out, but knew that if she paid attention, she could hear them mumbling. They would be dreaming out loud, talking nonsense, or in the most comical situations, argue in their sleep with perfect synchrony. Now, she heard nothing.

Finding herself worried for a reason she couldn't quite place,made her way to their room where she froze instantly on the spot. The hammocks hung, empty and foreboding. They swayed mockingly, as if they had any weight upon them to make them move so. Those idiots wouldn't dare to leave her alone on the ship. Would they? No, they wouldn't. She decided. It wouldn't make any sense, unless...

Unless, there had been trouble.

The thought alone made her chest tighten with worry. If there had been trouble, why hadn't they woken her up? Why hadn't they returned boisterous and victorious as usual?

Before she could register what her body was doing, she was racing to the main deck. She needed to find out where the others were. It was all just too strange.

Reaching the deck out of breath, she never could have been prepared for what laid in front of her. A scream tore itself from her throat as tears immediately began their cascade down her cheeks. The thick metallic smell lingered so heavily in the air she could swear that she could taste it, and she found herself wondering why she hadn't smelled it below deck. After all, the source was everywhere.

Blood. It saturated the floorboards, the mast, the railing, any part of the ship it could have touched, it did.

Gasping as she fought to keep her dinner down, she found that she couldn't move. Her friends, her nakama, were all dead. Dead. The word couldn't even register properly in her mind.

Yet there they were, sprawled in front of her, with pools of blood beneath them.

"You guys..." She muttered feeling suddenly too weak to move, to do anything but scream and cry.

_This isn't happening, this isn't happening..._

Her eyes scanned the bodies in front of her one by one, slowly. Hoping, begging, for any movement from at least one of them. They weren't dead. They couldn't be. But there was Usopp, she remembered that it had been his turn to keep watch in the crow's nest during the night. Now half his body hung over the crow's nest, what blood was left in his body still flowing down the mast. From where she stood, she couldn't see what the cause of his death was, and looking at the amount of blood he had lost, she was glad that she couldn't.

Her mind then became full of guilt. She had to admit that she hadn't expected him to live if the others hadn't. She knew that he was strong in his own way, knew that in the heat of a battle, no matter how cowardly he acted, that he still did his part. But, she also knew that he was the most human out of the guys on their ship. He didn't possess the brute strength the others had, nor the monstrous ability to be able to ignore numerous deadly wounds on his body. No, they had both shared that bond. They were the weakest, physically, out of the group, yet they had found their own strength in other things. And now it just hurt her to watch him hanging there lifelessly. No more lies or stories spewing out of his mouth, no more cries of despair when he got scared.

"Why, why is this happening..." She sobbed, losing all strength in her legs as she dropped to the deck, feeling blood soak her bare knees making her feel even sicker.

"N...Na- mi?..." A deep husky voice suddenly whispered, startling her tremendously and nearly giving her a heart attack.

"Zoro? Oh god, Zoro you're alive! Shh. Don't talk okay? We-we have to get you patched up..."

The swordsman said nothing and for a moment, she thought she had imagined his voice. After all, how could he still be alive, let alone speaking? She had gotten used to seeing him with numerous wounds covering his body, blood all over his clothes, and then watched him get up like nothing had ever happened. But there had never been this much blood. His white shirt had been dyed red and no trace of it ever being white had remained. He was littered with so many slices and stabs that she couldn't decipher where one began and where the other ended. And to top it all of, his swords, his precious swords were shattered.

"Zoro?..." She whispered once more almost ready to believe that in her desperation, she really had imagined his voice.

She gasped as his eyes opened and were horribly dull, and distant. His voice was harsh and raspy as he choked for breath. " Na-Nami. Le-let me sl-sleep..."

"You're just going to take a nap right? Right Zoro, you...you lazyidiot, you're just going to nap, right?" She cried finding herself choking back a sob. She knew she was in denial and being stupid for asking such a thing, but she didn't know what was worst, finding someone dead or being with them during their last moments.

It was a painfully long moment before he finally found enough breath to respond. "I-I don-don't think so..."

"Don't say that! Ne, you're going to be the greatest swordsman aren't you? You can't do that if you're dead! Besides you still owe me money remember? You're in debt to me! You have to stay alive!"

"I'm..so-sorry..."

"I thought you were going to make sure I was going to hell!"She found herself screaming.

Something that resembled a painful version of a smirk graced his features. "I'll...be waiting for yo-you th-there..." With that, his eyes closed and his body relaxed as he took his final breath.

"No!" Nami found herself hissing as she shook him in a vague attempt of waking him."You were awake right now, wake up, wake up!"

Her mind reeled as she began to sob once more. This was too much, what had she done to deserve this? To see everyone she ever cared for die in front of her?

"Do-don't cry Na-Nami-swa-swan..."

"Sanji-kun!" She shouted as she rushed over to where the cook laid, broken.

His long strong legs, his weapons, laid twisted in angles they shouldn't have been able to, and the way that his chest was caved in slightly, it was obvious that he had a good number of ribs broken. To top it all off, blood pooled behind his head from an unseen wound.

"Sanji-kun, what happened, who did this? When did this?...The others they, they're dead.. I ..."

"Do-don't cry Na-Nami-sw-swan...bea-beautiful girls shou-shouldn't cry..." He rasped as he managed to weakly lift a hand up and brush it against her cheek, wiping away a stream of tears.

"Sanji-kun..." She whimpered already seeing what little life he was holding onto slipping away. "Please...please don't die on me..."

"I-I really lo-loved yo-you, Na-Nami-sw-an..." He responded grinning up at her with all the strength he could before his eyes closed forever.

"Noooo!" She moaned dropping onto his chest sobbing openly, screaming her pain to the open sea, which was still abnormally calm, and still. Her mind vaguely wandered if they had somehow managed to drift into a calm belt, but that didn't make any sense at all either. And even if they were, what could have possibly murdered her nakama in such a brutal way?

"Usopp, Zoro, Sanji-kun...Lu-Luffy?" She trailed off, not having seen their captain's body up close yet. She hadn't paid her final respects to him yet.

Steeling up all her courage, she boldly made her way to where their captain laid. One sword impaled him through the heart and onto the deck. Funny, how something so simple had taken him away from her, from all of them. He was the heart of their ship, the reason they were all united in the first place. The one who defied all odds and had the most spirit to live. No one had been able to take him down, no one had been able to wipe away his innocence, his courage or that goofy smile that had always graced his face. He had a charm that no one could deny and made people flock to him, good and bad. Survived bullets, near drowning, explosions, avalanches, hypothermia, and many more things that no normal person could have, and yet there he was, dead. Done in by something as simple as a sword through his chest. The attacker had simply been lucky that he had managed to get him through the heart, she was sure.

"Luffy... Luffy, I'm so sorry." She sobbed stroking his black hair back, his straw hat lost somewhere during the battle.

"I ...I wish I was dead too! I don't want to be alone again! I don't want to be without my nakama!" She screamed into the cold night air. "I want to be with them!" She cried, dropping once more to her knees, losing all strength. Her body convulsed as violent sobs of sorrow shook her, before she threw her head back and screamed her anguish.

It was then that she noticed that everything was getting darker, she couldn't see her nakama dead around her any more, not even the ship or her own two hands in front of her. Everything got increasingly dark until she knew no more.

"Nami-san? Nami-san it's all right, it was just a nightmare, shh."

_Sanji-kun?_

No. Her mind reminded her cruelly. Sanji-kun is dead. They all are. You saw them.

But someone's hand was rubbing her back in small soothing circles as a familiar masculine voice kept assuring her that everything was all right. A familiar scent invaded her nostrils that she gathered was coming from the person who was comforting her. The smell of nicotine and the vague smell of spices. There had been only one person she had known who had smelled like that.

_Sanji-kun..._

The mere thought of the cook and the knowledge of his death, made a lump lodge itself in her throat as she felt new tears flow down her cheeks.

"Hey now, no crying. Beautiful girls shouldn't cry..."

"Stop it!" She yelled, grabbing her head and touching her forehead to her knees. She didn't have the courage to look. Didn't have the strength to hope that Sanji really was next to her and then open her eyes to find that he wasn't.

"Oi, love cook, what the hell are you doing to her?" Another familiar voice suddenly invaded her ears.

"Shut up you bastard, she just had a nightmare, that's all."

"I bet…"

"What? What is that supposed to mean you--"

"Hey, all I know is that she was screaming…."

"What are you implying?"

"Just that you are a stupid love cook that can't keep his thoughts clean."

"You jerk! I'm going to--"

"Sanji! I'm hungryyyyyy! Make me something to eat! Meat, lots of it! Eh? What's wrong with Nami?"

The cook rolled his eyes, it figured he'd be the last one to notice that their navigator had been screaming her head off upon waking up.

"Geez Luffy, didn't you hear her screaming?" Another voice joined the group. "Is she all right, Sanji?"

"Yeah, I think so. She's just a little shaken up."

Nami had been listening to this whole exchange carefully. She still hadn't opened her eyes and was still afraid to do so. But the hand hadn't left its spot on her back and the man who sounded an awful lot like Sanji-kun had continued to talk to her, trying to coax her into opening her eyes. He had also continued to wipe away the stray tears that ran down her cheeks. Which surprised her, she was sure that her eyes had run dry by now. She couldn't even remember a time when she had cried so much since Bellemere-san's death.

"Come on Nami-san, open your eyes, you're okay now, I promise."

She didn't care about her own safety, she just wanted to know that her nakama wasalive and well.Finally unable to contain her curiosity any longer, she cracked open an eye and then the other.

And to Sanji's disappointment, more tears made their way down her cheeks. Except these were tears of joy.

"Nami-san?" He questioned warily wondering what was wrong with his definition of beauty.

"Sanji-kun...it's really you..."

"Anou..." He replied, confused as ever.

Quickly looking past him, she saw the rest of her nakama standing around in her room. Zoro was leaning back against the wall casually, while Luffy hung over the railing of the stairs, impatiently waiting for Sanji to go and cook. Usopp was sitting on a barrel watching her intently, a slightly worried look gracing his features.

"You guys.." She whispered feeling her heart beating faster in relief. She found herself grinning stupidly at them, which made them all very confused.

"Nami, are you all right?" Usopp questioned immediately.

"I'm fine! I'm just great!" She exclaimed while still smiling at him.

A nightmare, the whole horrible episode had been a nightmare. It had felt so real that it had scared her to no end. Her chest ached as if she really had been crying herself dry, her throat was sore as if she really had screamed her anguish endlessly into the night sky. She still felt shaky, and prayed to the powers above that, this wasn't a dream and that the horrible nightmare wasn't the reality.

"Sanji, did you make Nami all better? I'm hungry!" Luffy reminded impatiently.

"I'm actually hungry too, Sanji-kun." Nami agreed with a grin.

"Hai! Right away Nami-swan! Anything for you!" He exclaimed gushing over her as usual, as he made his way up to the kitchen.

"Ne, ne, Sanji, make sure there's a lot of meat!" Luffy reminded him as he followed him up the stairs.

"All right, all right, I heard you already you idiot!" The cook snapped back sighing, as their captain simply laughed off the insult, happy that he was going to get his way.

Lunchtime upon the Going Merry was no different from any other day. Sanji had made another delicious lunch, complete with the meat that Luffy craved. Fights ensued as their captain quickly ate all that had been on his plate, and half of what had been on everyone else's.

A chorus of "Luffy that was mine!" Rose from the table as his mouth stretched and he swallowed enough food to feed a horse in one swallow, having inhaled everything but the table into his mouth.

Soft feminine laughter interrupted their arguing, and all the males turned to look at their navigator. She never before had laughed at their antics so easily, usually staying quiet, or getting annoyed and into the fight as well.

They looked at her as if she had suddenly grown another head. Except for Sanji, who gushed, "Ah, a happy Nami-san, is the best Nami-san of all!"

But she didn't care what they thought. She was going to laugh, and laugh as long as there was something to laugh about. Her nightmare had made her soul cry enough and she was very happy to get rid of that awful feeling. Her nightmare had made her realize that she had taken her nakama for granted. Had forgotten that even though they didn't seem like it at times, that they were pirates. And by choosing to be pirates that their lives were in constant danger. But most of all, that one day she really would have to face losing one of them. And eventually, all of them. Even if it was hopefully, just due to old age. But for now, she'd laugh and enjoy them. She'd enjoy the presence of her new family and friends.

_I promise you guys, I'll never take you for granted again..._

_-Owari-_

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Author's Notes: Wow, er, I never expected my first One Piece fic to be so...dark? Actually I wrote it because I was really the one plagued with nightmares last night. (Dreaming about a loved one dying slowly is never any fun.) It really scared me, I'm not ashamed to say and I felt that I really had been taking that person for granted.

In order to help cope with that uneasy feeling, I needed to write. I was going to make this a Naruto fanfic, but I've been wanting to write in the OP universe for a while now. ;;;. I hope you guys liked it, it was hard for me since it was my first one-shot too. Please review, I would really really appreciate it!


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